A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!

[MaudantWit]

Join us for ongoing gardening chat in the MN potting shed. Blow the cobwebs off a deckchair, help yourself to a glass of elderberry champagne and tell us about your garden.

I love this weather - sunny all day, rainy all night, perfectfir lazy gardeners like me. My bargain Sarah raven dahlias are finally sprouting, my verbena has come back from the dead and my yellow hollyhock is almost in flower.

I have no gaps for bulbs, but that won't stop me buying them

My bulbs will all be going into pots, so I can move them around the garden to fill the gaps.

It suddenly feels very stormy here. I think we may get a downpour. Last night's didn't amount to much, to judge from how little the water butt filled up.

Last day of nursery today; last chance to do some proper gardening. But I had to spend the morning stripping paint, gah! Fortunately the delivery of the next batch of paint stripper didn't arrive till tea time though, so once the existing stuff was used up I was released for a few hours. I had time to hack and prune a gap all along the back of the east facing shrub border, so that there is space to trim the Leylandii hedge behind.

I shan't be ordering any bulbs this year. I shall wait till I can properly re-do my borders. The Bloms catalogue has just arrived though so I may spend some time staring at it.

Yes, the catalogues seem to be arriving at the rate of one a day at the moment. Those and the emails offering amazing deals on bedding plants.

##gettheebehindmesatan

Acanthus mollis geoff that's bears breeches yes? I've been seriously thinking about getting some I need plants to be large at the back of an overgrown border that faces south but is surrounded on 2 sides by walls (i have too many borders tbh ) If they don't need a lot of looking after i'l go for them what do any of you knowledgeable people think?

I think acanthus mollis could be just what you need! Apart from removing the dead stalks in the spring, i do nothing to mine and this year it's looking better than ever.

We have just staged our exhibits for the summer flower and produce show. Wish us luck!

Thanks Maud how lovely a flower and produce show! what are you showing ? Yes the best of luck When will you know the results? Is it in your local park? Sorry too many questions

Have PM-ed you, ppeatfruit.

Well, we have done quite well. Between us, we have prizes for potatoes, lettuces, jam, carrot cake x 2, shrubs (fuchsia magellanica), photography and a highly commended for my zonal pelargonium.

Blimey well done Maud I just replied to your pm thanks!

Got the recipe for carrot cake? I love carrot cake but not with pineapple

I will send you a link to the carr

Argh!

Carrot cake recipe tonight!

Well done maudant

I bought 2 nice mature shrub types in the mark for 2 euros each this morning; one the sweet lady called rudbeckia but it's pink. the other she called balsamica and after no joy on google i found it in Geoff Lancaster's book. It's bastard balm and very pretty.

Could the pink 'rudbeckia' be echinacea? Quite a lot of people get them confused. The bastard balm (which I just had to Google) looks lovely.

Well done maud! Is your fuschia magellanica in flower already then? Mine has good foliage, no flowers as yet.
There are some red echinaceas: my favourites atm though are 'white swan' and 'tomato soup' which is a lovely orange, and is in its pot under the oak next to dig. alba, pretending it is at a flower show. I shan't plant it there as they like full sun.
I cant grow acanthus mollis but the acanthus rue ledan are coming on nicely next to the dig. alba

Hello. Back from holiday and caught up with thread. Have yet to see the garden as it was dark when we got back but already have casualties in the conservatory. Really needed watering every day in the heat. Lost at least two cucumbers and others may follow. Hope garden has fared better. Will be inspecting in the morning (possibly in pyjamas). We always seem to go away during a heat wave. Very annoying!

Welcome all new people.

Yes, the fuchsia magellanica has been in flower for several weeks. Some of the fuchsias in patio pots have also been in flower for a couple of weeks, but there are a couple which are still in bud. (I grow quite a lot of fuchsias because DH likes them; I would have had more if I had been better at nursing last year's through the winter).

It sounds like your garden is weeks ahead of mine then.

Have you experience of the Gardeners world lavender offer at all? Postiplugs arrived today; 48 sweet healthy little plants , but not labelled so I dont know which type of lavender is which. How can I know before they flower ?

How strange, as our gardens aren't that many miles apart. They must have their own little microclimates!

I didn't bother with that GW offer, as I struggle here to provide lavender with the conditions it needs. The two I had in pots on the sunny windowsill have died in the last couple of weeks; I have pruned them and fed them, but it seems clear that they are not going to come back from the dead.

Is there really no clue about which is which ? How annoying for you. Did they come from T&M? Could you contact them for advice on how to tell them apart?

Good suggestion, thanks.
Yes, you must have a microclimate, also possibly different aspect, sunshine and prevailing wind!

Well done at the show, Maud!

Ds ate some Hypericum berries yesterday. Had a little panic as they are poisonous, but he had no symptoms whatsoever and NHS helpline said not to worry unless he started reacting.

He has been loving eating the redcurrants on the new redcurrant tree, and we were picking blackberries in the lane the other day, so he has just discovered the joys of picking and eating things. I need to lecture him more about not doing it unless an adult tells him it's ok!

What with that and Rhubarbcat2 jumping into a bucket of paint stripper yesterday, I didn't get chance to do any gardening.

Sorry to hear about your conservatory plants Bertha.

Coo, well done on the prize front, Maudant. What you said about fuchsias turning up their toes in the winter made me look at the one we have, which is at its best now. Its vivid colours draw the wattlebirds looking for nectar, but they don't come back often, so I'm guessing there's little of it.

Today I gave in and dug up the oca; about 12oz, a rather meagre return on the space it occupied. The problem seems to be it never gets really cold where I planted it, in the sunniest part of the garden at any time of year. The daytime temps have't got below 13 this winter, so the cold they need to get their tiers on has not turned up. Not discouraged, we'll make a meal, okay, side dish, of the bigger ones and plant up the little tubers in the spring. This time I'm going for containers; big shopping bags, lined with sailcloth, so I can cart them off to the cold side of the house that gets no direct sunlight in the winter months, though lots of ambient light.

Hyacinths and tulips in pots are just poking out now, and I've dug umpteen verbena bonariensis out of the veggies beds to go into the flower beds t fill out where some native shrubs are presently small but will spread. Note to self: dig vb out when they're an inch across next time, as their roots strike deep very quickly, and they're not fond of being moved.

Funny when I have had tiny plug plants there has been a printed guide somewhere on the packaging that gives the names from right to left or whatever. If it's not, then ring the supplier. They'll probably send you a whole new set, so you'll have double. When you prick out the ones you've got, take note of where they are in the packaging (& photos) so you can match them all up.

Yes Maud just looked it up in my herb book and echinacea's other name is rudbeckia purpurea!! I take it for so many things I could make my own now! Oh the book I mentioned is by Roy Lancaster not Geoff!